Obstacles to Ethical Travel: Attitudes and Behaviors of New Zealand
Travel Agents With Respect to "Politically Repressed" Destinations

Brent Lovelock

Department of Tourism, University of Otago, New Zealand

This article examines the attitudes and behaviors of New Zealand travel
agents in relation to providing travel advice for destinations that have
known human rights abuses. A postal survey was undertaken of travel agencies
throughout New Zealand. Generally, while supportive in principle of ethical
travel, travel agents do not operationalize this concern in terms of their
workplace behavior (e.g., continuing to sell products for destinations
that have known human rights issues). A range of workplace and personal
factors appear to be influential in the way in which travel agents behave.
However, the primary obstacle acting against travel agents participating
more actively in ethical travel is the ethical dissonance imposed on the
ethical decision-making situation through the agent's obligation to give
credence to their clients' rights of freedom of choice over where they
travel.

An Evaluation of the Implementation of a Responsible Gambling Code
of Practice at the Gold Coast, Queensland

Helen Breen and Nerilee Hing

School of Tourism and Hospitality, Southern Cross University, Australia

The Queensland Responsible Gambling Code of Practice is a voluntary
commitment by gambling providers to assist with responsible gambling. This
qualitative research involving interviews with 20 managers and staff from
14 gambling venues at the Gold Coast aims to examine awareness and implementation
of the Code plus perceptions of its effectiveness. After the first year,
the average level of implementation of all the elements in the Code was
78% for these venues. Of the Code's six major practice areas, the physical
layout and environment practice was reported as being very effective while
the provision of information, including signage and the odds of winning,
was perceived as the least effective practice. Training and education were
seen as important facilitators in encouraging responsible gambling. The
implementation of the Code supports the goal of sustainability for the
Gold Coast as a tourist destination.

1School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, San Diego
State University, CA, USA
2Library and Information Access, San Diego State University,
CA, USA

The intense tourism initiatives currently being implemented at the national
level in Romania have the potential to rejuvenate the country's rural economies.
Although the national goal to utilize tourism as an economic development
strategy in rural areas is both viable and timely, it is crucial for the
Romanian government to adopt sustainable rural tourism practices incorporating
local community-identified needs and viewpoints relating to tourism development.
This article elucidates one such attempt at identifying the needs and concerns
of a cross-section of community stakeholders, from the Orastie region of
Romania, regarding appropriate forms of tourism development in their community
and surrounding areas. In early 2004, a series of community meetings and
focus groups was held in Orastie, as part of an NGO-facilitated rural tourism
consultation project for the region. Although the local governments and
community members of the area were highly enthusiastic regarding Orastie's
tourism potential, no clear guidance for sustainable tourism development
was available until a tourism planning framework was developed by the consultation
team. From this study, it may be inferred that, for successful sustainable
rural tourism development to occur, it is vital for local governments to
enhance local empowerment through involvement of community members in the
tourism planning and decision-making process.

This study focuses on the rural images of rural accommodation operators,
their motivations in terms of "lifestyle" aspirations, and their "brokering"
role in the understanding of tourists' needs and experiences in rural areas.
We know little about the rural image perceptions of tourism entrepreneurs,
the importance that they place on a rural lifestyle, and how they influence
their guests' experiences of rural life. Similarly, little is known about
knowledge transfer between hosts and their guests. The study area for this
research is in a rural region of small towns and villages in South Western
Ontario, Canada. Through personal interviews, rural entrepreneurs showed
a strong interaction with tourists, a sound knowledge of tourist motivations,
and where tourists go in the region. They performed a role of validating
and recommending tourist activities and thus influencing consumption patterns.
Their role as tourism "brokers" is important because as well as recommending
the tourism product, they can get feedback on the quality of tourist experiences
in the region. This article supports the notion of lifestyle entrepreneurship
as the norm in rural tourism, at least in this region, and emphasizes the
importance of the rural landscape to quality of life for both hosts and
guests.